Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
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Product Description
What you need to know to have the best birth experience for you.
Drawing upon her thirty-plus years of experience, Ina May Gaskin, the nation’s leading midwife, shares the benefits and joys of natural childbirth by showing women how to trust in the ancient wisdom of their bodies for a healthy and fulfilling birthing experience. Based on the female-centered Midwifery Model of Care, Ina May’s Guide to Natural Childbirth gives expectant mothers comprehensive information on everything from the all-important mind-body connection to how to give birth without technological intervention.
Filled with inspiring birth stories and practical advice, this invaluable resource includes:• Reducing the pain of labor without drugs--and the miraculous roles touch and massage play
• What really happens during labor
• Orgasmic birth--making birth pleasurable
• Episiotomy--is it really necessary?
• Common methods of inducing labor--and which to avoid at all costs
• Tips for maximizing your chances of an unmedicated labor and birth
• How to avoid postpartum bleeding--and depression
• The risks of anesthesia and cesareans--what your doctor
doesn’t necessarily tell you
• The best ways to work with doctors and/or birth care providers
• How to create a safe, comfortable environment for
birth in any setting, including a hospital
• And much more
Ina May’s Guide to Natural Childbirth takes the fear out of childbirth by restoring women’s faith in their own natural power to give birth with more ease, less pain, and less medical intervention.
Drawing upon her thirty-plus years of experience, Ina May Gaskin, the nation’s leading midwife, shares the benefits and joys of natural childbirth by showing women how to trust in the ancient wisdom of their bodies for a healthy and fulfilling birthing experience. Based on the female-centered Midwifery Model of Care, Ina May’s Guide to Natural Childbirth gives expectant mothers comprehensive information on everything from the all-important mind-body connection to how to give birth without technological intervention.
Filled with inspiring birth stories and practical advice, this invaluable resource includes:• Reducing the pain of labor without drugs--and the miraculous roles touch and massage play
• What really happens during labor
• Orgasmic birth--making birth pleasurable
• Episiotomy--is it really necessary?
• Common methods of inducing labor--and which to avoid at all costs
• Tips for maximizing your chances of an unmedicated labor and birth
• How to avoid postpartum bleeding--and depression
• The risks of anesthesia and cesareans--what your doctor
doesn’t necessarily tell you
• The best ways to work with doctors and/or birth care providers
• How to create a safe, comfortable environment for
birth in any setting, including a hospital
• And much more
Ina May’s Guide to Natural Childbirth takes the fear out of childbirth by restoring women’s faith in their own natural power to give birth with more ease, less pain, and less medical intervention.
About the Author
Ina May Gaskin is founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, located near Summertown, Tennessee. She has lectured all over the world at midwifery conferences and at medical schools, both to students and to faculty. The Farm is noted for its low rates of intervention, morbidity and mortality. Recently selected as a Visiting Fellow at Morse College of Yale University, Ina May also teaches midwifery, writes books and articles for medical journals and edits her quarterly journal, The Birth Gazette.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Also Good for Fathers-To-Be,
By
This review is from: Ina May's Guide to Childbirth (Paperback)
One of the very few stipulations my wife made after we learned we were going to have a child is that I read this book by the doyenne of natural childbirth in the U.S. While the tone of the book is much too touchy-feely/hippyish for me, I have to admit that it is well worth reading regardless of whether you're planning a natural childbirth or a fully tech'ed out hospital one. That said, it would be very easy to read it as gospel and get swept up in its giddy repudiation of modern medicine, so one should approach it with, if not a skeptical eye, at least with one's critical faculties fully engaged. There is also the potential that readers who are fully committed to a hospital birth may come away from this book feeling scolded, or as if their decision is somehow "wrong".
The author is a superstar in the field of natural childbirth, largely as a result of her 35+ years work at "The Farm", a kind of birthing commune in Tennessee. The first half of the book is a compilation of natural childbirth stories written by mothers who've either done it at The Farm, or somehow in conjunction with the author. While these are certainly useful as illustrative examples of how it all goes down, they tend to get rather repetitive and could certainly stand to be scaled back a bit. And for those who know little about the birthing process, some of the terminology can be unclear. Finally, for those who might want to read this book on the subway (like me), be forewarned that there are some pretty graphic photos of childbirthing in this section. The second half of the book walks the reader through the entire process, mostly with the aim of explaining why modern medical childbirthing procedures are not based on the mother's health and needs, but are designed for convenience of the medical establishment. Stuff like epidurals, amnios, fetal monitoring, pitocin, forceps, vacuum extractors, etc. all come under sustained assault. Gaskin makes a convincing case for most of her criticism, with plenty of good examples from historical texts and anthropological research. Perhaps the most striking and compelling examples come from studies of childbirthing in modern Scandinavia. Sometimes Gaskin stretches a little to far in her attempt to debunk every single medical procedure and doesn't always have the most current data. For example, Rhogham does not have any mercury whatsoever any more, and the danger from amniocentesis is vastly overstated. However, simply in terms of the debate over natural childbirth vs. hospital birth, it's awfully hard to argue with the data she's gathered from thousands of natural childbirths. Ultimately the reality is that every mother's experience is different, and there's no technique, approach, or solution that works for everyone. That said, the book did a pretty good job of convincing me that the mother's mental approach to childbirthing and expectations for the experience are the single most important indicator of how it will all go.
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Let Your Monkey Do It,
By A Customer
This review is from: Ina May's Guide to Childbirth (Paperback)
Ina May is a real person, a real mother, a real midwife. She makes physiological information about birth clear while mixing in a bit of medical history, anthropology, humour and extra-ordinary stories of birth from ordinary women. "Let your monkey do it" is Ina May's advice--in other words leave your socialization and high level reasoning behind--for finding the right place, time and way in which to birth your baby. Ina May respects women, babies, partners and other care providers who may or may not share her beliefs about birth. Enjoy this informative read.
42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Reading for any Pregnant Women,
By
This review is from: Ina May's Guide to Childbirth (Paperback)
It was only when reading this book that I reflected back to my daughter's birth 12 years ago, prior to which Ina May Gaskin's book Spiritual Midwifery had been my constant companion. Ms Gaskin reflects that so often for women in the civilized world, stories of births from friends and relatives are usually filled with intervention and problems. In my friends only one had a trouble free and easy birth - she went into hospital at 4am, gave birth at 6am and left the hospital at 9am. Other women had 28 -40 hour labours, caesarian's, inductions, forceps. I realised how true it was that we are surrounded by more stories of negative birth experiences, than positive ones. Reading Ina May's books you are immersed in stories of women who had positive birth experiences where they were surrounded by people who loved them, people who had been through the birth experiences successfully themselves and who, even in cases of previous ceasarians, twins births, breech births -which would normally require hospital intervention, gave birth normally and naturally without drugs or surgical intervention. A quick flick through hospital statistics shows that large hospitals have a much lower rate of normal births - about 40-60%(ie without drugs or intervention) than do smaller maternity units and community hospitals (with 90-100% natural births). Many commentators suggest that hospitals intervene too quickly when labour doesn't proceed quickly enough, - even to my dismay noting that some hospitals will now insist on drug induction when a woman passes her due date - when it used to be that the woman was allowed to proceed to 2 weeks post due date before induction. I cannot stress how highly Ms Gaskin's books moved me and how much I feel they have helped me in my own labour experiences. If you read only one book during your pregnancy - read either one of these two books.
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